Nicholas Dew

Nicholas Dew. Orientalism in Louis XIV’s France
The jury was particularly impressed with Dew’s masterful reconstruction of more distant western intellectual traditions regarding the East. Dew looks specifically at the period between 1650 and 1715. This sets him apart from most other scholars of European Orientalism who focus primarily on the age of European colonization in Egypt, the Middle East, and India. Through the study of the lives and careers of certain key French baroque scholars and diplomats, Dew reconstructs how French thinkers imported, processed, and disseminated knowledge of the East. Nicholas Dew’s book is a particularly strong example of historical scholarship, one well worthy of the Ferguson prize.